Former CM slams grand old party over its ‘dictatorial’ attitude
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 3: Breaking his silence on his brother Zenith’s return to the Congress, Opposition Leader Mukul M. Sangma on Wednesday said the move was aspirational but wrong.
Making it clear that a family remains a family whether his brother joins Congress or any other party, Sangma said the interest of the people supersedes everything, even politics. “When I am in the public, I have thousands of brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces,” he said.
He declined to disclose his next move while describing Congress as a party with a “dictatorial” central leadership.
He also predicted that 2028 would be a year of a conglomeration of political forces in Meghalaya. The elections to the 60-member state Assembly are due in 2028.
Sangma said that he quit Congress because “national parties have always tried to weaken the federal structure” of the nation. He recalled the Congress high command disrespecting the sanctity of the Cabinet by dictating the fate of its members.
“Was I not forced to drop Prestone Tynsong and Sniawbhalang Dhar from the Cabinet? Even the party president was being picked and replaced,” he said, recalling that senior party leader DD Lapang was replaced by Celestine Lyngdoh months ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections.
Stating that a Chief Minister is accountable to the Cabinet, he said that the Cabinet, not the political party, is answerable to the legislature.
“How will you run the Government when the high command dictates to you?” Sangma told reporters, adding that the pulse of the state’s people indicates that a conglomeration of political forces would head Meghalaya after the 2028 polls.
Denying the reports in a section of the media that he has been negotiating with different national parties, he said that he does not find it necessary to hold discussions with parties like the BJP and Congress, which he claimed helped the National People’s Party “directly or indirectly” to form the government.
Sangma asserted that he did not leave Congress abruptly. “It was a conscious decision,” he said.
“I have not scripted any plan. I have a lot of time before taking a call,” he said.
Admitting that some TMC MDCs are in a dilemma over their future course of action, Sangma asserted that the Trinamool Congress will field candidates in the GHADC polls to be held early next year.
“Those who want to fight from the TMC will be invited to apply for nomination and the process will begin shortly, he said while hinting that the TMC was open to the idea of alliance with likeminded parties in all the 29 seats in Garo Hills.
